STS-42
Spacelab in Discovery's payload bay
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| Mission type | Microgravity research | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Operator | NASA | ||||
| COSPAR ID | 1992-002A | ||||
| SATCAT № | 21846 | ||||
| Mission duration | 8 days, 1 hour, 14 minutes, 44 seconds | ||||
| Distance travelled | 4,701,140 kilometers (2,921,150 mi) | ||||
| Orbits completed | 129 | ||||
| Spacecraft properties | |||||
| Spacecraft | Space Shuttle Discovery | ||||
| Launch mass | 110,400 kilograms (243,400 lb) | ||||
| Landing mass | 98,890 kilograms (218,020 lb) | ||||
| Payload mass | 13,066 kilograms (28,806 lb) | ||||
| Crew | |||||
| Crew size | 7 | ||||
| Members |
Ronald J. Grabe Stephen S. Oswald Norman E. Thagard William F. Readdy David C. Hilmers Roberta L. Bondar Ulf Merbold |
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| Start of mission | |||||
| Launch date | 22 January 1992, 14:52:33 UTC | ||||
| Launch site | Kennedy LC-39A | ||||
| End of mission | |||||
| Landing date | 30 January 1992, 16:07:17 UTC | ||||
| Landing site | Edwards Runway 22 | ||||
| Orbital parameters | |||||
| Reference system | Geocentric | ||||
| Regime | Low Earth | ||||
| Perigee | 291 kilometres (181 mi) | ||||
| Apogee | 307 kilometres (191 mi) | ||||
| Inclination | 57.0 degrees | ||||
| Period | 90.5 min | ||||
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Left to right: Oswald, Bondar, Thagard, Grabe, Hilmers, Merbold, Readdy
STS-42 was a Space Shuttle Discovery mission with the Spacelab module. Liftoff was originally scheduled for 8:45 EST (13:45 UTC) 22 January 1992, but the launch was delayed due to weather constraints. Discovery successfully lifted off an hour later at 9:52 EST (14:52 UTC). The main goal of the mission was to study the effects of microgravity on a variety of organisms. The shuttle landed at 8:07 PST (16:07 UTC) on 30 January 1992 on Runway 22, Edwards Air Force Base, California. STS-42 was the first of two flights in 1992 of Discovery, the second of which occurred during STS-53, which launched on 2 December 1992. The mission was also the last mission of the Space Shuttle Discovery to have a seven-member crew until STS-82, which was launched on 11 February 1997.
The crew of STS-42 included West Germany's first astronaut, Ulf Merbold, who was making his second spaceflight, and Canada's first female astronaut, Roberta Bondar. In order to allow around-the-clock monitoring of experiments, the astronauts were divided into a red team and a blue team. Manley L. Carter, was originally assigned to fly as Mission Specialist 3 for this mission, but died 7 months prior the launch in a plane crash. David Hilmers was then chosen to replace him.
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